Founding the Criminal Law: Punishment and Political Thought in the Origins of America. By Ronald J. Pestritto. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000. 191p. $36.00.

Abstract

Political theory reminds us that punishment is a fundamentally political action, an exercise of political power. This book is about penal reform and the philosophy of punishment as both were debated in postrevolutionary America. Pestritto combs through original writings of the founders and state constitutions in an effort to elucidate leading philosophies about the purpose of the criminal law and punishment. At a macro level, the book provides a window into how the American system, in Pestritto's venues of Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia, mediates between the tensions of the preservation of individual liberty and maintenance of public order. The book attempts to bridge the historical gap from our founding to current issues in sentencing, such as the three-strikes rule, determinate or mandatory sentencing laws, and state experimentation in marrying sentences to available prison space, or the cost of incapacitation. Pestritto's greatest contribution is to mine new material in these historical conversations on punishment, which allows them to be heard in our contemporary debates.